This is the first book-length treatment of supplication, an important social practice in ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Despite the importance of supplication, it has received little attention, ...
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This is the first book-length treatment of supplication, an important social practice in ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Despite the importance of supplication, it has received little attention, and no previous study has explored so many aspects of the practice. This book investigates the varied gestures made by the suppliants, the types of requests they make, the arguments used in defense of their requests, and the role of the supplicandus, who evaluates and decides whether to fulfill the requests. Varied and abundant sources invite comparison between the societies of Greece, especially Athens, and the Roman Republic and Principate and also among literary genres such as epic and tragedy. Additionally, this book formulates an analysis of the ritual in its legal and political contexts.Less

Ancient Supplication

F. S. Naiden

Published in print: 2006-08-10

This is the first book-length treatment of supplication, an important social practice in ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Despite the importance of supplication, it has received little attention, and no previous study has explored so many aspects of the practice. This book investigates the varied gestures made by the suppliants, the types of requests they make, the arguments used in defense of their requests, and the role of the supplicandus, who evaluates and decides whether to fulfill the requests. Varied and abundant sources invite comparison between the societies of Greece, especially Athens, and the Roman Republic and Principate and also among literary genres such as epic and tragedy. Additionally, this book formulates an analysis of the ritual in its legal and political contexts.

Before the more famous Renaissance European reception of the ancient Greek Hermetica, the Arabic tradition about Hermes and the works under his name had been developing and flourishing for 700 years. ...
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Before the more famous Renaissance European reception of the ancient Greek Hermetica, the Arabic tradition about Hermes and the works under his name had been developing and flourishing for 700 years. The legendary Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus was renowned in Roman antiquity as an ancient sage whose teachings were represented in books of philosophy and occult science. The works in his name, written in Greek by Egyptians living under Roman rule, subsequently circulated in many languages and regions of the Roman and Sasanian Persian empires. After the rise of Arabic as a prestigious language of scholarship in the 8th century, accounts of Hermes’ identity and Hermetic texts were translated into Arabic along with the hundreds of other works translated from Greek, Middle Persian, and other literary languages of antiquity. Hermetica were in fact among the earliest translations into Arabic, appearing already in the 8th century. This book explains the origins of the Arabic myth of Hermes Trismegistus, its sources, the reasons for its peculiar character, and its varied significance for the traditions of Hermetica in Asia and northern Africa as well as Europe. It shows who pre-modern Arabic scholars thought Hermes was and how they came to that view.Less

The Arabic Hermes : From Pagan Sage to Prophet of Science

Kevin Van Bladel

Published in print: 2009-10-01

Before the more famous Renaissance European reception of the ancient Greek Hermetica, the Arabic tradition about Hermes and the works under his name had been developing and flourishing for 700 years. The legendary Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus was renowned in Roman antiquity as an ancient sage whose teachings were represented in books of philosophy and occult science. The works in his name, written in Greek by Egyptians living under Roman rule, subsequently circulated in many languages and regions of the Roman and Sasanian Persian empires. After the rise of Arabic as a prestigious language of scholarship in the 8th century, accounts of Hermes’ identity and Hermetic texts were translated into Arabic along with the hundreds of other works translated from Greek, Middle Persian, and other literary languages of antiquity. Hermetica were in fact among the earliest translations into Arabic, appearing already in the 8th century. This book explains the origins of the Arabic myth of Hermes Trismegistus, its sources, the reasons for its peculiar character, and its varied significance for the traditions of Hermetica in Asia and northern Africa as well as Europe. It shows who pre-modern Arabic scholars thought Hermes was and how they came to that view.

Moving out from a particular problem about a particular Athenian festival, this book investigates central questions concerning Athenian festivals and the myths that underlay them. It examines the ...
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Moving out from a particular problem about a particular Athenian festival, this book investigates central questions concerning Athenian festivals and the myths that underlay them. It examines the role played at festivals by hereditary religious associations, showing how simple actions of undressing, veiling, bathing, and re-dressing a statue created a symbolic drama of abnormality, reversion to primeval time, and renewal for the Athenians. The book also offers a reading of the ever controversial Parthenon frieze. This book, displays attention to detail and a concern for methodological rigour.Less

Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood

Published in print: 2011-01-27

Moving out from a particular problem about a particular Athenian festival, this book investigates central questions concerning Athenian festivals and the myths that underlay them. It examines the role played at festivals by hereditary religious associations, showing how simple actions of undressing, veiling, bathing, and re-dressing a statue created a symbolic drama of abnormality, reversion to primeval time, and renewal for the Athenians. The book also offers a reading of the ever controversial Parthenon frieze. This book, displays attention to detail and a concern for methodological rigour.

This book argues that the Dialogues on the Miracles of the Italian Fathers, Pope Gregory the Great's (590–604) most controversial work, should be considered from the perspective of a wide-ranging ...
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This book argues that the Dialogues on the Miracles of the Italian Fathers, Pope Gregory the Great's (590–604) most controversial work, should be considered from the perspective of a wide-ranging debate about the saints which took place in early Byzantine society. Like other contemporary works in Greek and Syriac, Gregory's Latin text debated the nature and plausibility of the saints' miracles and the propriety of the saints' cult. Rather than viewing the early Byzantine world as overwhelmingly pious or credulous, the book argues that many contemporaries questioned and challenged the claims of hagiographers and other promoters of the saints' miracles. From Italy to the heart of the Persian Empire at Ctesiphon, a healthy, sceptical, rationalism remained alive and well. The book's conclusion argues that doubt towards the saints reflected a current of political dissent in the East Roman or early Byzantine Empire, where patronage of Christian saints' shrines was used to sanction imperial autocracy. These far-reaching debates about religion and authority also help re-contextualize the emergence of Islam in the late ancient Near East.Less

Debating the Saints’ Cult in the Age of Gregory the Great

Published in print: 2012-07-05

This book argues that the Dialogues on the Miracles of the Italian Fathers, Pope Gregory the Great's (590–604) most controversial work, should be considered from the perspective of a wide-ranging debate about the saints which took place in early Byzantine society. Like other contemporary works in Greek and Syriac, Gregory's Latin text debated the nature and plausibility of the saints' miracles and the propriety of the saints' cult. Rather than viewing the early Byzantine world as overwhelmingly pious or credulous, the book argues that many contemporaries questioned and challenged the claims of hagiographers and other promoters of the saints' miracles. From Italy to the heart of the Persian Empire at Ctesiphon, a healthy, sceptical, rationalism remained alive and well. The book's conclusion argues that doubt towards the saints reflected a current of political dissent in the East Roman or early Byzantine Empire, where patronage of Christian saints' shrines was used to sanction imperial autocracy. These far-reaching debates about religion and authority also help re-contextualize the emergence of Islam in the late ancient Near East.

This book reconsiders several of Augustine's most well-known letter exchanges, including his famously controversial correspondence with Jerome and his efforts to engage his Donatist rivals in a ...
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This book reconsiders several of Augustine's most well-known letter exchanges, including his famously controversial correspondence with Jerome and his efforts to engage his Donatist rivals in a letter exchange. It reads these letters with close attention to conventional epistolary norms and practices, in an effort to identify innovative features of Augustine's epistolary practice. In particular, it notes and analyzes Augustine's adaptation of the traditionally friendly letter exchange to the correction of perceived error in the Christian community. In transforming the practice of letter exchange into a tool of correction, Augustine draws on both the classical philosophical tradition and also scripture. His particular innovation is his insistence that this process of correction can—and often must—be done in the potentially public form of a letter exchange rather than in the privacy of a face-to-face conversation. This is particularly true when the perceived error is one that has the potential to jeopardize the salvation of the entire Christian community. In offering epistolary correction, and requesting reciprocal correction from his correspondents, Augustine treats his practice of letter exchange as a performance of Christian caritas. Indeed, in his view, the friendliest correspondence was that which was concerned solely with preserving the salvation of the participants. In recognizing Augustine's commitment to the corrective correspondence and thus reading his letters with attention to their corrective function, we gain new insights into the complicated dynamics of Augustine's relationships with Jerome, Paulinus of Nola, the Donatists, and Pelagius.Less

Disciplining Christians : Correction and Community in Augustine’s Letters

Jennifer V. Ebbeler

Published in print: 2012-09-28

This book reconsiders several of Augustine's most well-known letter exchanges, including his famously controversial correspondence with Jerome and his efforts to engage his Donatist rivals in a letter exchange. It reads these letters with close attention to conventional epistolary norms and practices, in an effort to identify innovative features of Augustine's epistolary practice. In particular, it notes and analyzes Augustine's adaptation of the traditionally friendly letter exchange to the correction of perceived error in the Christian community. In transforming the practice of letter exchange into a tool of correction, Augustine draws on both the classical philosophical tradition and also scripture. His particular innovation is his insistence that this process of correction can—and often must—be done in the potentially public form of a letter exchange rather than in the privacy of a face-to-face conversation. This is particularly true when the perceived error is one that has the potential to jeopardize the salvation of the entire Christian community. In offering epistolary correction, and requesting reciprocal correction from his correspondents, Augustine treats his practice of letter exchange as a performance of Christian caritas. Indeed, in his view, the friendliest correspondence was that which was concerned solely with preserving the salvation of the participants. In recognizing Augustine's commitment to the corrective correspondence and thus reading his letters with attention to their corrective function, we gain new insights into the complicated dynamics of Augustine's relationships with Jerome, Paulinus of Nola, the Donatists, and Pelagius.

This book focuses primarily on the end of the pagan religious tradition and the dismantling of its material form in North Africa (modern Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya) from the fourth to the sixth ...
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This book focuses primarily on the end of the pagan religious tradition and the dismantling of its material form in North Africa (modern Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya) from the fourth to the sixth centuries ad. It considers how urban communities changed, why some traditions were lost and some others continued, and whether these carried the same value and meaning upon doing so. Addressing two main issues, mainly from an archaeological perspective, the volume explores the change in religious habits and practices, and the consequent recycling and reuse of pagan monuments and materials, and investigates to what extent these physical processes were driven by religious motivations and contrasts, or were merely stimulated by economic issues. In fact, other elements probably contributed to urban changes and to the practice of recycling that became common in Late Antiquity, such as the economy, trade (i.e., availability of statuary and building material), and a substantially poorer quality of life (i.e., lower budgets to be spent on monuments and statuary) from the fourth century onward. The transition from Paganism to Christianity also through time determined change in function of temples and the end of the Pagan priesthoods.Less

The End of the Pagan City : Religion, Economy, and Urbanism in Late Antique North Africa

Anna Leone

Published in print: 2013-06-27

This book focuses primarily on the end of the pagan religious tradition and the dismantling of its material form in North Africa (modern Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya) from the fourth to the sixth centuries ad. It considers how urban communities changed, why some traditions were lost and some others continued, and whether these carried the same value and meaning upon doing so. Addressing two main issues, mainly from an archaeological perspective, the volume explores the change in religious habits and practices, and the consequent recycling and reuse of pagan monuments and materials, and investigates to what extent these physical processes were driven by religious motivations and contrasts, or were merely stimulated by economic issues. In fact, other elements probably contributed to urban changes and to the practice of recycling that became common in Late Antiquity, such as the economy, trade (i.e., availability of statuary and building material), and a substantially poorer quality of life (i.e., lower budgets to be spent on monuments and statuary) from the fourth century onward. The transition from Paganism to Christianity also through time determined change in function of temples and the end of the Pagan priesthoods.

A history of the religion of the Roman imperial period is of fundamental importance for understanding the history of religion in Europe. It is also of great value for any history of religion. The ...
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A history of the religion of the Roman imperial period is of fundamental importance for understanding the history of religion in Europe. It is also of great value for any history of religion. The Roman Empire offered a space for Christianity which enabled the quick diffusion of media and ideas. It is this space and period which enabled the diffusion of Christianity and made way for an esthetizied paganism prepared for many later renaissances. This book argues that the decisive change within this period was not the growing number of ‘religions’ or changes in their ranking and success, but a modification of the idea of ‘religion’ and a change of the social place of religious practices and beliefs. A medium serving the individual necessities the dealing with human contingencies like sickness, insecurity, and death and a medium serving the public formation of political identity is shown to be transformed into an encompassing system of ways of life, group identities, and political legitimation.Less

From Jupiter to Christ : On the History of Religion in the Roman Imperial Period

Jörg Rüpke

Published in print: 2014-07-24

A history of the religion of the Roman imperial period is of fundamental importance for understanding the history of religion in Europe. It is also of great value for any history of religion. The Roman Empire offered a space for Christianity which enabled the quick diffusion of media and ideas. It is this space and period which enabled the diffusion of Christianity and made way for an esthetizied paganism prepared for many later renaissances. This book argues that the decisive change within this period was not the growing number of ‘religions’ or changes in their ranking and success, but a modification of the idea of ‘religion’ and a change of the social place of religious practices and beliefs. A medium serving the individual necessities the dealing with human contingencies like sickness, insecurity, and death and a medium serving the public formation of political identity is shown to be transformed into an encompassing system of ways of life, group identities, and political legitimation.

Festivals were the heartbeat of Greek and Roman society, its social and political organization, and its institutions. They set the rhythm of the year, as laid down in a calendar, and through them ...
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Festivals were the heartbeat of Greek and Roman society, its social and political organization, and its institutions. They set the rhythm of the year, as laid down in a calendar, and through them divine protection of the public and private spheres was ensured and the populace was joined together in common acts centred on common symbols. The present book contains twelve chapters on Greek and Roman festivals from an interdisciplinary field of Classical scholarship: archaeology, history, history of religions, and philology. The book addresses the key question of what a Greco-Roman festival was, and show that the answer is many-faceted and complex. The very concept of ‘festival’ is examined; the origin, content, practice of different festivals, with their implicit features and historical significance, are discussed. The social, political, and ritual function of ancient festivals is illuminated by examples and theoretical reflections. The book accordingly contributes to a more nuanced and finely delineated picture of the close connections between festivals as religious and social phenomena and processes, and the historical dynamics that shaped them in the times of the Greeks and Romans.Less

Greek and Roman Festivals : Content, Meaning, and Practice

Published in print: 2012-08-30

Festivals were the heartbeat of Greek and Roman society, its social and political organization, and its institutions. They set the rhythm of the year, as laid down in a calendar, and through them divine protection of the public and private spheres was ensured and the populace was joined together in common acts centred on common symbols. The present book contains twelve chapters on Greek and Roman festivals from an interdisciplinary field of Classical scholarship: archaeology, history, history of religions, and philology. The book addresses the key question of what a Greco-Roman festival was, and show that the answer is many-faceted and complex. The very concept of ‘festival’ is examined; the origin, content, practice of different festivals, with their implicit features and historical significance, are discussed. The social, political, and ritual function of ancient festivals is illuminated by examples and theoretical reflections. The book accordingly contributes to a more nuanced and finely delineated picture of the close connections between festivals as religious and social phenomena and processes, and the historical dynamics that shaped them in the times of the Greeks and Romans.

This book examines major theories of interpretation of the Greek gods in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century German and British scholarship, and their implications and influence with a primary, ...
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This book examines major theories of interpretation of the Greek gods in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century German and British scholarship, and their implications and influence with a primary, though not exclusive, focus on Apollo. German and British scholars of the time drew on philology, archaeology, comparative mythology, anthropology, or sociology to advance radically different theories on the Greek gods. The book focuses on the theory of the Greek gods as gods of natural elements; its principal rival, the theory of K.O. Müller and his followers that the Greek gods had originally been tribal and universal gods; H. Usener’s theory of Sondergötter, as well as theories inspired by anthropology and sociology (Lang, Farnell, Harrison). The book situates the rival theories in their intellectual and cultural context, and explores their underlying assumptions and agendas. It lays particular stress on how the interpretation of the Greek gods was informed by confessional and national rivalries and on how it was implicated in broader contemporary debates in Germany and Britain—such as over the origins and nature of religion, or the relation between Western culture and the ‘Orient’. In addition, the book looks at the impact of these theories on the study of Greek religion in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and draws implications about current debates and approaches.Less

The Greek Gods in Modern Scholarship : Interpretation and Belief in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Germany and Britain

Michael D. Konaris

Published in print: 2015-11-01

This book examines major theories of interpretation of the Greek gods in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century German and British scholarship, and their implications and influence with a primary, though not exclusive, focus on Apollo. German and British scholars of the time drew on philology, archaeology, comparative mythology, anthropology, or sociology to advance radically different theories on the Greek gods. The book focuses on the theory of the Greek gods as gods of natural elements; its principal rival, the theory of K.O. Müller and his followers that the Greek gods had originally been tribal and universal gods; H. Usener’s theory of Sondergötter, as well as theories inspired by anthropology and sociology (Lang, Farnell, Harrison). The book situates the rival theories in their intellectual and cultural context, and explores their underlying assumptions and agendas. It lays particular stress on how the interpretation of the Greek gods was informed by confessional and national rivalries and on how it was implicated in broader contemporary debates in Germany and Britain—such as over the origins and nature of religion, or the relation between Western culture and the ‘Orient’. In addition, the book looks at the impact of these theories on the study of Greek religion in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and draws implications about current debates and approaches.

Ancient religions are usually treated as collective and political phenomena. Apart from a few towering figures, the individual religious agent has fallen out of view. This volume addresses this gap ...
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Ancient religions are usually treated as collective and political phenomena. Apart from a few towering figures, the individual religious agent has fallen out of view. This volume addresses this gap by focusing on the individual and individuality in ancient Mediterranean religion. To an astonishing degree even in antiquity individual religious action is not determined by traditional norms handed down by family and the larger social context. Options open up, choices are made. On the part of the individual, this development is reflected in changes in “individuation”, the parallel process of a gradual full integration into society and the development of self-reflection and of a notion of individual identity. The volume, however, does not search for isolated actors. Socialization, that is the biographical process of being integrated into ever larger social contexts as well as the individual's appropriation of religious roles and traditions, and the development of individual identity go hand in hand. Such processes are analyzed for the Hellenistic and Imperial periods down to Christian-dominated late antiquity, for pagan polytheistic as well as Jewish monotheistic settings. Individuation is looked for in everyday religious practice in Phoenicia, Greek cities and Rome. It is identified in institutional developments, and philosophical reflections on the self as exemplified by the Stoic Seneca. The broad range of phenomena is focussed by looking for individual agency, the social context of individual action, by analysing concepts of mind and body, by asking for experience and discipleship.Less

The Individual in the Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean

Published in print: 2013-08-29

Ancient religions are usually treated as collective and political phenomena. Apart from a few towering figures, the individual religious agent has fallen out of view. This volume addresses this gap by focusing on the individual and individuality in ancient Mediterranean religion. To an astonishing degree even in antiquity individual religious action is not determined by traditional norms handed down by family and the larger social context. Options open up, choices are made. On the part of the individual, this development is reflected in changes in “individuation”, the parallel process of a gradual full integration into society and the development of self-reflection and of a notion of individual identity. The volume, however, does not search for isolated actors. Socialization, that is the biographical process of being integrated into ever larger social contexts as well as the individual's appropriation of religious roles and traditions, and the development of individual identity go hand in hand. Such processes are analyzed for the Hellenistic and Imperial periods down to Christian-dominated late antiquity, for pagan polytheistic as well as Jewish monotheistic settings. Individuation is looked for in everyday religious practice in Phoenicia, Greek cities and Rome. It is identified in institutional developments, and philosophical reflections on the self as exemplified by the Stoic Seneca. The broad range of phenomena is focussed by looking for individual agency, the social context of individual action, by analysing concepts of mind and body, by asking for experience and discipleship.

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